GOP's problems exposed in Senate

David Steelman, whose wife, Sarah Steelman, was one of three candidates in the three-way GOP primary, charged that while the NRSC never publicly endorsed a candidate, its preference was first-time candidate John Brunner, who had the ability to self-fund a race.

Steelman argued that the NRSC’s implicit support of Brunner — at a time when Steelman was already ahead of McCaskill in polls — “created the dynamic that let Akin win.”

“They kept saying to me Akin cannot win and I kept telling them he was going to, if Brunner and his allies — and I meant NRSC — was obsessed with Steelman. They told me absolutely clearly up until polling changed that Akin could not win,” Steelman told POLITICO.

An NRSC official declined comment, but one GOP operative familiar with the race groused that Steelman had early and ample committee assistance but proved to be an underwhelming candidate.

Matt Miller, a former aide to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said party leaders are responsible for allowing these kinds of problems to fester.

“Winning the seat is more important than not getting criticized. Where the national party has helped shape primaries, we’ve ended up winning general elections more often than not,” Miller said. “They haven’t shown the results, so their base isn’t willing to sit down and be quiet.”

SCHUMER V. CORNYN

Some of the differences between the two parties boil down to how both New York Sen. Chuck Schumer and Cornyn handled backlash from the base when they tried to hand-pick candidates.

When Schumer was DSCC chairman during the 2006 and 2008 cycles, he changed past committee precedent by selecting Democrats in their primaries and then working to clear the field. The strategy angered the left, but it was successful.

In Pennsylvania, the party pushed anti-abortion candidate Bob Casey past the liberal base in 2006. The same year in Ohio, it elevated Sherrod Brown over Iraq War veteran and Netroots favorite Paul Hackett. And in 2008, Schumer picked Jeff Merkley in Oregon over lawyer and political activist Steve Novick.

Schumer called his aggressiveness in primaries a “real sea change” for the party. Before 2005, it was considered “religion” not to intervene in intraparty fights, he said.

“Look, the tea party has more clout — has undue clout — on the Republicans,” Schumer told POLITICO. “But let me tell you, when we first started this in 2005, there was a load of flak, everywhere.”

Schumer said times have changed for his base.

“What happened is they saw the strategy worked. Now they are much more on board. … I think we’ve learned it the hard way – that this is what works. We got killed before 2005, and now people who were strongly ideological on the left side realize that this strategy may not achieve 100 percent of their goals, but it achieves 75 or 80 percent of their goals, and that’s a lot better than achieving no percent of their goals.”

Cornyn declined to be interviewed.

But other Republicans say the Democrats’ approach is indicative of its top-down governing philosophy, in which Washington dictates what it wants to the states.

“From governing to candidate recruitment, Democrats broadly think Washington knows best,” said Rob Jesmer, executive director of the NRSC. “Not surprisingly, that philosophy has led to the most liberal slate of Senate candidates in over a decade. Conversely, Republicans throughout the country have produced a great slate of candidates, many of whom will be sworn in to the United States Senate in January.”